Police shoot, kill Wasilla man

WASILLA — Police officers shot and killed a man about midnight Monday while responding to a 911 disconnect and potential domestic dispute, authorities said.

Two Wasilla Police Officers responded to a house on North Jack Nicklaus Drive shortly after midnight, Sept. 15 for the 911 disconnect, according to Wasilla Police spokesperson Rick Manrique.

There they encountered Michael Bonty, 23, of Wasilla, Manrique said.

Officers shot Bonty sometime after entering the residence, Manrique said.

“We have to do all our scene work,” he said. “It’s too preliminary at this point.”

Authorities would rather release correct information slightly later than quickly release incorrect information, Manrique said.

The officer involved in the shooting won’t be identified until Thursday at the earliest, following Wasilla Police Department policy that requires a 72-hours wait before identifying the officer in an officer-involved shooting, Manrique said.

Officers shot Bonty sometime after entering the residence. Another person was in the residence, though authorities declined to identify the other person either by name or in relationship to Bonty. The house belonged to Bonty’s mother, Manrique said.

The police department has requested the Alaska State Troopers provide assistance in investigating the incident, Manrique said.

Bonty appears multiple times in the Alaska Court System records, though almost all appearances are listed as minor offenses or traffic violations. Three open cases relate to minor offense traffic violations.

The last fatal shooting involving a Wasilla Police officer was March 9, when a police officer and a trooper shot Gordon Samel, 52, of Wasilla after a vehicle chase.

Cynthia Bonty, the listed owner of the property where the shooting occurs, appears in the Frontiersman archives as present at the scene of a 2003 murder involving a botched Oxycontin robbery. Cynthia Bonty wasn’t charged in connection with the 2003 murder, though three other people were. All were sentenced to multiple decades in prison.

Wasilla Police Officers generally respond to numerous 911 disconnects, Manrique said.

“A 911 disconnect is a very common call,” he said. “Normally you check with the people, verify that they’re OK.”

If a 911 disconnect did turn into a “volatile situation,” a call would go out to nearby agencies to aid in the response, Manrique said.

“It’s a fairly common-sense approach,” he said.

Alaska State Troopers had begun to play a role in the investigation Monday, said Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters.

“Alaska Bureau of Investigation investigators responded to the scene today and the investigation is ongoing,” she said.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269 or brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com

*An earlier version of this story stated that Bonty was holding a gun when police arrived. Police are not releasing information as to how he was armed.